Sunday, March 18, 2012

This is the end of the blog

After 5 years working here at the Victoria Times, I have made the decision to shut it down. While I have enjoyed writing here every day for the past 5 years or so, it was time to move on to greener pastures. Oh, you thought I would be done writing? Oh, no no no.
I made the decision at the beginning of the month, and I sent the following e-mail to Steve. You have the same right to know the background to this decision, so the email is copied in full below:

Hi, I was hoping I would get a chance to talk to you on IM or something, but I figured I would let you know via e-mail since we haven't had a chance to chat. I am shuttering Victoria Times, likely at the end of the month. That said, I am going to launch a new site, name to be decided, but tentatively dubbed "The Rhino and the Compass". This decision has come up due to several goals that I didn't feel could be met with the old name and the Blogger platform.- Join a network. I was going to apply for being included in the Yardbarker network, however with blogger, and the lack my own domain, I didn't feel the site had a professional appeal- A cleaner layout: I have worked with Wordpress at a few other sites, and I know it's easier to work with while coming up with a better end result.- A name change: The Victoria Times Colonist is also the name of a newspaper in British Columbia. I wanted a new name to go with the new site so we could get- The biggest plan with the change is the addition of a radio/podcast... thing. A half hour, once a weekish, where, if you want, you can jump on if you want, and if you don't that's fine too. Eric (Panthers24) might be a regular on the show. It will be through BlogTalkRadio.The content will be the same, and I would love to have you continue to make the odd contribution. The transfer of content from Victoria Times should be pretty easy, I believe, and if it isn't, the Times won't go away. Like I said, I just wanted ot give you a heads up, before everything changes and you are left confused.Talk to you soon - Ryan

And I will talk to you soon. I will give you the new site tomorrow. Thanks for reading.

Links of the Day 3/18/12

SCOREBOARD
NHL
Carolina 5, Minnesota 3- Minnesota gave up 4 unanswered to lose this one. Frustrating.
CIT
Mercer 64, Georgia State 59 - Mercer rolls on to the quarters, where they are scheduled to face the winner of Old Dominion and USC Upstate.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

The scariest possible sports moment

I have been gripped by something that has nothing to do with the NCAAs at all. It does have with a tournament, the FA Cup in England. Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed in the 41st minute, needing to be resuscitated as he was stretchered off the field. Muamba is thought to have suffered a massive heart attack, and he is "critically ill" and at a place called the London Chest Hospital.
This isn't the first time that there has been a cardiac incident on the pitch in a European soccer match. The history with such incidents isn't very good either. It's a terrifying incident that nobody ever wants to experience, and we can only hope Fabrice can recover, so he can raise his young son, soccer be damned.

SCOREBOARD
NCAA Tournament
Purdue 72, St. Mary's 69 - Purdue nearly blew the game late, but held on thanks to a really bad travel by St. Mary's.
Kansas 65, Detroit 50 - The Jayhawks are the only two seed to win yesterday. Amazing. And now the Jayhawks play Purdue on Sunday.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Well, if that wasn't interesting

After a great deal of hullabaloo, after quite the hubbub, it was revealed to us exactly why Missouri was the 8th over all seed. Many thought that the Tigers should have been a 1 seed, based on their strong conference record, and their work outside the conference. Well, so much for that. Lowly Norfolk State out of the MEAC outlasted the Tigers.
In another region, the South Region, the highly esteemed, greatly ballyhooed Duke Blue Devils were the two seed. They had some issues as well, and haven't been as strong as they're historically known to be. The suddenly invigorated Lehigh Mountain Hawks decided to take this tournament up a notch, unseated Duke.
That's right, two 15 seeds won today There have only been 4 to make that mark through the entire history of the tournament.
Yesterday, Thursday, was very boring. Only two upsets, with VCU and Colorado winning their games. Today was insane. In addition to Lehigh and Norfolk State, Ohio beat Michigan, North Carolina State beat San Diego State and South Florida will likely beat Temple.
Oh, and Purdue beat St. Mary's. March Madness, baby!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The winner of the Victoria Times NCAA Tournament

As you may remember, because I touched on the topic a couple of days ago, I was planning on running the Victoria Times European Style NCAA basketball tournaments. Well, I did that, and I finished it off last night before I went to bed. I wanted it to be finished before the real thing started today, to see if anything interesting happened. Yes, some interesting stuff happened.
First, the secondary tournament, where I will touch on teams that made surprisingly deep runs. The greatest surprise were the Big Sky teams, Montana and Weber State. After busting out of the Champions tournament to Saint Mary's in the first round, Montana defeated Indiana and Missouri before falling to Louisville. Weber State, in the Secondary tournament from the outset, defeated Creighton, Colorado State and Marquette, before falling to Georgetown. Of the last 6 teams in the Secondary tournament, only one of them, Louisville, was from a power conference. The other 5 were St. Mary's (who busted out of the primary to Valparaiso), Harvard (lost in the primary to Long Beach State), New Mexico (lost in the primary to Long Island), and Long Beach State, who lost in the Primary championship game to Kentucky. Louisville was the last surviving non regular season champion by a full 4 rounds, just because of the way it all played out.
The Primary, champions tournament was a mess. The final four of that dance was Middle Tennessee State (wins over Akron, Syracuse and Temple), Long Beach State (Davidson, Kansas, Harvard), Kentucky (Savannah State, Belmont, Valparaiso) and Drexel, (New Mexico, Wichita State, North Carolina). Additionally, Valpo beat Memphis and Texas-Arlington topped Ohio State. Just weird stuff, top to bottom in this contest. Kentucky eventually nipped Long Beach State in the championship game, a game that surely everyone plans on seeing in the final four this year.
The champion of the Secondary Tournament was... Long Beach State. They defeated Louisville rather handily (65-55) which meant to get an overall champion, LBSU had to rematch against Kentucky. Kentucky won that game as well, by two points more. Kentucky won by 14 in the first game, and 16 in the second. Too bad this post was so late, otherwise you could have used this post to help you pick Kentucky to win it all.

SCOREBOARD
CBI
Mercer 68, Tennessee State 60 - The Bears advance in their tournament that not many people know about! They play Georgia State next.
NHL
Dallas 1, Minnesota 0 - The Wild are hilariously incompetent on offense.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Cooking with Ryan: Tangy Stir Fry

This was tremendously successful, this stirfry. I only wish that I had photographed it. That said, what made it work wasn't really that photogenic. The best part was the sauce, which decided not to be terribly thick or voluminous.
What was in that sauce, you ask? It's was an amalgam of chicken broth, red wine vinegar, sugar, cayenne pepper and... ketchup? Never has simple catsup been so dadgummed fancy! The key to the whole thing, though, was that I cut down on the alotted corn starch, so it wouldn't get gummy and gross. Helpfucl tip for all of you. Never use as much corn starch as they tell you.

(If you were wondering, it was chicken with broccoli, carrots and onions, on a bed of white rice)

And now for another simulation.

Last year, I asked what it would be like if the NCAA set tournaments up like the European soccer. You can read about it here. Whereas the NCAA football simulation was established because the entire college football season stinks, I just did this because there is something endemically unfair about a conference champion not making a tournament. I want the regular season to matter, is all, and for there to be less "selection" involved in the selection process. Anyways, go read those posts from a while back.

I set up the 2012 Victoria Times NCAA basketball tournaments. I forgot to keep everything organized, and I have everything all paired off and ready to go. The Champions tournament is, as a reminder, seeded like a normal tournament. The champions pairings are: Syracuse vs Utah Valley State, Kentucky vs Savannah State, North Carolina vs Mississippi Valley State, Kansas vs Stony Brook, Ohio State vs Texas-Arlington, Wichita State vs UNC-Asheville, Memphis vs Valparaiso, Temple vs Bucknell, Murray State vs Long Island, Saint Mary's vs Montana, New Mexico vs Drexel, Harvard vs Washington, Long Beach State vs Davidson, Iona vs Nevada, Oral Roberts vs Belmont, and Akron vs Middle Tennessee State. Sorry for not laying that out like a bracket, but the first team listed in each matchup was the higher seed, with the top seed being Syracuse.

Again, the Secondary tournament is redrawn every round, so highest seeds play against the lowest seeds, and losers from the Champions tournament can get worked into the Secondary tournament. Winners of the tournaments play each other in the title game. I'll keep you posted when I have an official Victoria Times Champion.